In article ,
albee wrote:

On Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:34:14 -0700, Joe wrote:

On Aug 22, 5:54 pm, albee wrote:

I'm sure you guys will recommend checking behind the wall where he
drilled. He just doesn't want to have to do that, though.

Now isn't that really dumb? Any one with an IQ larger than his shoe
size would want to fix the problem. If he is in denial about other
problems he should see a shrink for help. How sad.

Joe

I will admit he's worse than me, but even I wouldn't want to tear up
and repair drywall if it weren't necessary. I'm sure he'll do it if it
is, but since his light's been working, he's not sure that's what the
problem is.
Any thoughts what's going on with the outlets? Thanks again.

Well, yeah. An open circuit. Forget about the 70 volt reading, that may
well have been erroneous. After you gave him the heads up about the
backstabbing issue, did he do anything about it? As a first step,
suggest he removes the outlets in question and alligator clip a lamp to
the wires themselves. That will verify voltage and current in the
circuit.